


All Summer Long

by shortystylee



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF, Summer Romance, hopeless romantic Ben Solo, midwestern Reylo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2019-11-07 15:55:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17963570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shortystylee/pseuds/shortystylee
Summary: Ben’s life has always been satisfactory. He’s got one last summer before he goes to university, and he’s content to work on the family cherry farm, do some exploring and hiking… ya know, regular summer things before his four years of undergrad start.But then he meets Rey. She’s visiting just for the summer, and what they have, it’s more than satisfactory - it’s perfect. The summer romance the secret softy in him didn’t know that he longed for. But she’s leaving in the fall too, and not to his school, and not even in-state. Can things really be perfect when all they have is one summer?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Someone said they enjoyed my Midwestern Reylo AUs, so here ya go.  
> This is set in Traverse City, Michigan, a city in the northern lower peninsula, known for lakes, dunes, and cherry farms. 
> 
> Sorry not sorry about the Dune references.

Summer 2018 had turned out to be the summer he’d dreamed of. The one that stuck out. Not just because it was the summer before he would start university, which he assumed made it the last one he was obligated to spend at home on the cherry farm. Well, until he graduated and had his degree and was able to takeover with  _ real  _ responsibilities, not just the grunt work or helping in the store. Ben had told his mother of all his business ideas, how to grow that side of it, a million times over, and he hoped that once he had a fancy piece of paper with his name embossed on it, that maybe someone would listen to him. The farm would go to him, and he did want it, not just because it had been in the family for years, a centennial farm, and tradition, blah blah blah, but because as much as he sometimes wished for easier non-manual labor, he loved the feeling of satisfaction he got during good crop years, or seeing return customers who had been coming around since his mother was a girl. Cherries were at the heart of the economy up there, and he was proud to be part of that. 

That was neither here nor there though. 

This summer was different, sticking out amongst all the boring summers he’d spent, jealous of his friends who got to actually go on vacation. Hell, he’d have been okay with a family trip to Cedar Point, even Michigan’s Adventure. His friends all went off to places like Florida. Or California.  _ Or goddamn Hux, whose family took him to fucking Riviera Maya, of all places.  _

No jealousy this summer for him. 

This summer, was the summer he met  _ her _ . 

The girl he’d always wanted to meet. 

She wasn’t from up there, Traverse, or  _ up north  _ as she called it, and the fact that he had even ran into her at all had been completely up to fate. Especially at the most stereotypical of Traverse City area summer tourist attractions.  _ Well, second most stereotypical, _ he thought,  _ if you don’t count Cherry Fest.  _

It was cliché, he knew it, and he’d long since stopped caring. Sleeping Bear Dunes was hands down his favorite place to visit, decompress… spend some time away from the farm and whatever he was asked to do that day, whether it be helping out with the roadside shop or with his dad in the fields. 

That’s where she’d been.

*****

“You’re not from around here, are you?” Ben asks. He’d spotted her the second he crested the last dune and could see where the sand met the water. Instead of coming up the dunes and passing him, like many other groups of people had done, she just stayed down at the bottom. He took a drink from the plastic water bottle and offered it to her. She paused only for a quick second before she took it from him. 

“No,” she admitted, blushing. “I’m not from up north.” He wanted to tease her in the moment, tell her that when you live up here, it’s not really up north ‘til you’re across the bridge. But he doesn’t, unsure of how she would take his joking. “What gave me away?”

He looked at her pointedly, then slowly turned and looked up towards the top of the gigantic sand dune that loomed ahead, the behemoth standing in the way of them and their freedom and civilization. Well, there was freedom the other way too, on Lake Michigan, but that involved calling the coast guard for a rescue. 

“If you were from here, you’d know it’ll take you about 4 hours round trip to climb down and back up the dunes. You’d have at least brought some water.”

“I  _ tried  _ climbing up, but I just can’t seem to get the hang of it.” She shrugged. “I’m usually pretty good in the sand too.”

“What does that even mean? Are you from the desert?” 

She rolled her eyes at him and lightly swatted his arm.  _ Oh, so this  _ is _ how it’s going to be. _

“Arrakis, actually,” she deadpanned, her voice as serious as she can make it, and then she pauses to see his reaction.

Ben’s eyes widened at the Dune reference.  _ How is this happening, how is this happening to me? I’m in my favorite place and there’s a gorgeous girl making offhand Dune references. _ He was not usually this lucky.  _ This has to be a hallucination. Do I have heat stroke?  _ Despite his disbelief, he’s able to pull it together quick enough to answer her appropriately.

“Well, I’ve climbed up and down this dune probably a hundred times, and there’s no Shai Hulud to worry about here.”

Ben swore that he’ld remember the smile she rewarded him with for the rest of his life. “That’s good, since it wasn’t actually on Arrakis. It was on my school’s volleyball team,” she explained, then winked when she added, “Varsity. We also practice on the sand courts in the summer though.”

She was wearing cropped turquoise leggings, bright enough to call neon with the muted sandy colors surrounding them, and an oversized gray sweatshirt, but he was busy envisioning her in those tight black booty shorts all the girls on the volleyball team at his school wore. It was a much better vision than the outfits they actually wore in Dune. 

“Not this summer?”

“Nope, I graduated.”

He nodded. He’s always been a horrible judge of age and was glad to find out she’s at least the same grade in school as he is, and not a freshman. “Same here.” The conversation lulled for a moment, before he finally decided to offer his assistance. “Well, let’s get a move on then, before it gets dark.”

“Together?”

Oh, his heart clenched at the wariness in her voice.  _ Trust me, please, _ he wanted to say. He held his hand out to her, his palm open and upright. “Together.” 

It took them an hour longer than it normally took Ben to climb back up the dunes. If he’d been alone and making that sort of shit time, he’d be totally pissed off, but spending it with her? Yea, they could take all the time they need. Three hours is a long time to learn about someone. 

She’s from Auburn Hills, and all Ben knows about that town is that it’s where the Pistons used to play basketball before they moved to Detroit. She laughed at that, but agreed. “That’s about all its known for.”

She’s up in Traverse City for the summer, staying with her grandfather, while her parents travel for the summer. “I’d begged and pleaded for weeks, saying that I could be fine all summer alone. That I’m 18 and an adult, and could take care of myself. I fought valiantly, but I lost, so here I am.”

He won’t say it aloud, but he’s so glad her parents didn’t let her stay downstate. 

When they got to the top of the dunes, the sun was just starting to lower over Lake Michigan. They still had a couple hours of summer sun left before it disappeared. She plopped down on the sand facing the lake and lays back, arms raised over her head as she caught her breath. It’s then that he looked around and noticed the only car in the parking lot is his truck.

“Rey… did you walk here?” He looked around him again, and yep, still no car. No bicycles, or mopeds, nothing. 

“… maybe.” 

“Maybe?”

Rey pushed herself up and crossed her legs, still looking out at the lake. “It’s cool. I took a shuttle from the city, but I can get an Uber back though.” 

Ben didn’t know how long he’d been doubled over laughing at the very idea of getting an Uber to come all the way out here from the city, to the National Lakeshore, that has a twenty-five dollar entrance fee on top of everything. At some point, he realized she’s not right there laughing along with him. 

“No, no way. I’ll drive you.” She twisted to look back at him, and he motioned towards his truck with his head.

“Are you sure?” She’s wary, and he knows there’s nothing to worry about with his awkward ass, but he understood. 

“I’m sure.” He crossed the short distance to where she’s sitting and offered his hand out to her. For the second time today, Rey took it, and allows Ben to help her off the sand. 

The truck roared to life and Ben backed out of the parking spot, smiling a little to himself at the startled face Rey made at the noise. He drove down the winding park road that leads back to M22. Rey had been pretty quiet so far, her hands picking non-existent fuzz off her leggings.

“It’s right around dinner time and I dunno if you’re hungry or if you’ve got plans already but, maybe if you don’t, we could --”

He’s not ready when she interrupted his babbling. He’s really not ready for her suggestion.

“Let’s get ice cream!”

He can’t argue with that. 

“I know just the place.”


	2. Chapter 2

The leaves change color a week or two later than he’s used to, being a little farther south. But the wait is worth it. The colors on the trees on north campus are spectacular, vivid oranges and yellows, other trees a shock of dark red. 

 

Ben finds himself daydreaming as he walks around campus.

 

He can’t help it, he thinks of Rey, of how she would look here, walking with him beneath the trees near Beaumont Tower. In his head, she’s clad in a version of the prerequisite college girl uniform: black ankle boots, leggings, and an oversized sweater that hung off one shoulder in a very 80s Flashdance throwback sort of way. He realizes his imagination is making her kind of a  _ basic _ stereotype, and if he just threw in a pumpkin spice latte she’d be completely set, but he doesn’t care. 

 

As long as she was there, with him, he’d take it.

 

But she’s not there. He wonders if the leaves are changing in Virginia yet, at William and Mary, where Rey’s at. Probably not yet. October has to be way too early for that far south. Part of him wonders if they even change at all. He hopes they do.

 

Instead, he tries to settle in. Be content. And for the most part, he can. He looks good in the shade of green on all his school gear, it goes better with his skin tone than the slightly yellower John Deere green he’s used to wearing. In the weeks that led up to move-in, Ben had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to get along with his classmates or the other people on his dorm floor, that their backgrounds would be too different. The whole farm kid thing. 

 

Maybe that would’ve been the case, if he’d been a theater major or computer science major. But when you’re an agribusiness major? Well, it turns out almost every one else was a farm kid too. He got tagged in a picture from an Ag school mixer, his mom commenting quickly that he was looking great, and he agreed; his green and white College of Agriculture T-shirt peeking out from underneath his grey flannel button down. 

 

There’s even girls in his major, something he never expected and can admit now was pretty sexist of him to think. It’s refreshing to talk to girls with similar interests, since none of the girls at his high school gave two shits about cherry farming, unless he’d brought a pound or two with him in a Tupperware. 

 

There’s even two of the girls that ask him out. He can barely believe it, not one, but  _ two  _ girls ask him out.  _ Two! Is the world fucking ending _ ? It’s nice, and they’re certainly pretty, but in the end, he’s not interested. They just make him miss Rey all the more. His daydreams help, but thinking back on the summer helps more. 

 

XxXxX

 

He didn’t hear her car pull up, nevermind her footsteps as she walked up the long stone driveway towards him. He had his head and arms shoved so far into the hood of a John Deere that he’s lucky he didn’t jump and bash his head on the hood when she finally called out his name. What he did see, when he looked up, was a pair of white on white Adidas and tanned legs that seemed to stretch on for miles. 

 

“Rey… how long’ve you been there?”

 

“Oh, not too long.” She shoved her hands in the back pockets of her denim cut-off shorts, shrugging and rocking back and forth on her heels. “You were pretty deep in concentration. Something wrong with your, um, tractor?” The way she said it made it obvious that she had no idea if there was a special term for this particular piece of farm equipment.

 

Ben hadn’t quite been able to put his finger on it yet, but there’s something about her. Something that made his face go soft whenever she’s hopelessly clueless about all the things that come naturally to him from growing up on a working farm. Sure, he went to high school in town, and he bet that the majority of his classmates’ families weren’t farmers, but growing up around there you still ended up with more knowledge on the subject than most. 

 

“Nothing wrong, just some normal maintenance stuff. My dad always has me do it, says they won’t teach me all this  _ practical  _ stuff in college.” It’s bright outside, a hot day in late June, and he squinted as he used his forearm to wipe off the sweat beading on his forehead. “Gimme five minutes and I’ll have this finished.”

 

“Can I have a seat while you work?” He saw her eyeing the bench seat.

 

“Knock yourself out.”

 

A huge smile grew on her face and he had to stop himself from laughing. He’s found out that she’s able to get the biggest kick out of every little thing. Even that first evening, after he took her to Tiffany’s Cafe, one of those old-timey ice cream places not too far from the Dunes. He’d had to pull a U-turn in a stranger’s driveway since he turned towards town when they left, but the detour was worth it. You’d think she’d never had ice cream before, what with how much she enjoyed it. The night was warm and she suggested they walk around instead of sit out front of the cafe with all the other families and kids, and he’d been glad of it - there were too many people milling around for his liking and he knew that the beach was only three blocks away.

 

He finished up his work quickly, and saw her jump a bit at the noise the hood made when he let it drop shut. Ben climbed up next to her then, turned the tractor on, giving it a pat when it turned over on cue. 

 

“Where are we going?” she asked, sounding confused as he maneuvered slowly past his truck in the driveway. 

 

“The pole barn.”

 

“You sure do know how to treat a lady, Ben.” 

 

He laughed then said, “Sorry to disappoint, but this thing can’t stay in the front drive. My mom’ll have a fit.”

 

“Oh, that makes sense.” She paused like she was really thinking about what she wanted to say next. “You probably don’t hear this often, but I’ve never ridden on a tractor before.” 

 

“Never?” 

 

“Nope. Not even a riding lawn mower.”

 

“That would hardly count anyways. Just for you, I’ll take the long way.” He cranked the wheel and turned them left, driving straight across the front lawn, ignoring his mother’s questioning looks as she peeked out from behind the front picture window curtains.

The long way was only just the other way around the house and took all of five minutes longer, but it was worth it for the look on Rey’s face - her wide eyes, white knuckles hanging on to the small handhold on the right side, and laughing the entire bumpy time. There’s not much for her to grab onto, especially not with her left hand, and it found his thigh and clung on tightly. He didn’t know how or why she’s got a grip like a steel bear trap, and he swore there’d probably be five little fingerprint bruises later…  _ hell if I’m gonna tell her to stop.  _

 

Ben stopped in front of the pole barn’s double doors, hopping down and quickly opening them before he climbed back up in the seat to take them inside. As he maneuvered to the tractor’s designated parking spot, Rey glanced around at everything, despite that it’s only farm equipment and tools. He didn’t know what she had in mind when she showed up today, unannounced, but he made a mental note that if she decided she wanted to continue to hang around with him, he would definitely take her over to his uncle’s farm one day. Uncle Luke had more of the storybook style of farm, and though his property was much smaller, he kept all sorts of adorable farm animals that Ben’s family didn’t anymore. 

 

“You’re so different from every other boy I’ve ever met.” She must’ve seen how he rolled his eyes at that, since she continued on. “I mean it! Not just that you’re sensitive and seem to actually give a crap about what I’ve got to say, but you’re so… self sufficient. So…,” 

 

_ Oh no. Please don’t say it, please don’t say it.  _

 

“... so  _ country.” _

 

_ Well, fuck. She said it,  _ he bemoaned inwardly. He’s met downstate girls before and the second they realize he actually lived on a working farm, had expert level knowledge about cherry tree germination, and that all the muscles he had came from real outdoor work and not varsity football or lacrosse conditioning, he went from being outdoorsy and rugged and intriguing to quaint. Reduced to some sort of cute Old MacDonald figure in a children’s farm playset, straw hat on his head, maybe a stalk of wheat in mouth, someone who takes animals to county fair competitions.

 

_ And I do show animals at the county fair, but that’s beside the point.  _

 

He knew that everything he was thinking, or at least the emotions, were all over his face. If his dad had told him once, he’d told him a thousand times over - he had no poker face, for any emotion or information. There was no helping him now, and it’d gotten to the point where even his little cousins didn’t want to be his euchre partner at the family Christmas party. 

 

“What’s wrong? Ben,” she said his name with purpose, grabbing his attention, and when she saw she had it, she shifted towards him on the bench seat, her closer left hand finding his shoulder. 

 

And then? Floodgates, whoosh. Ben’s mouth opened and out came a deluge of apologies, for himself, his family, their lifestyle. Really, he wasn’t one hundred percent certain of everything he said, and the words just kept coming. 

 

“Ben --”

 

“And I know that this is all novel and new for you, since you’re used to the suburbs, and I also know that, yea, this is gonna be my livelihood eventually, but I’m not just some hick farm kid, Rey, I’m more than that, I’m --”

 

She didn’t say his name again but he stopped talking, and not because he was finished or out of breath, but because she shut him up. 

 

With her lips, on his. Right at the corner of his mouth. 

 

_ Did she miss? _ he wondered. Or was the corner of his mouth and just a hint of lips and promise her goal? 

 

But he didn’t care. He didn’t care, he did not care. 

 

“Different is good, Ben.” She pulled away, but kept his gaze, then squeezed his shoulder before bringing her hand back to her lap. “I like different.”

 

Rey didn’t actually say it, but Ben’s head, helplessly dizzy after only a hand on his shoulder and a sort of kiss, interpreted her words differently. 

 

I like  _ different, _ she’d said. I like  _ you, _ he heard. 

 

They sat for a few seconds until Ben realized he needed to do something. Sitting in a tractor in the barn was going to get real awkward real soon unless he leaned in and kissed her, and he did not possess the balls for that move quite yet. Instead, he hopped down and offered his hand up to help her down. She took it, surprising him when she didn’t immediately let go once on solid ground again, and it’s still in his hand when they pass by his mom in the front yard.

 

“Mom, Rey and I are gonna go for a drive,” he shouted. He noticed her looking up at him from where she was now kneeling in front of a line of hostas, her eyes showing a complete understanding of the situation.  _ Great, she’s gonna wanna have a chat about this at breakfast.  _

 

They left Rey’s Civic in the driveway behind the pontoon boat his dad keeps saying he’ll fix, taking his truck since he knew all these roads like the back of his hand. Rey didn’t bother to ask where he’s taking her, and for the whole drive up M22 she split her time between staring out the window at Grand Traverse Bay and looking back over at him. He wanted to watch her the entire time, see her experience this landscape that he admittedly took for granted after seeing it daily for eighteen years, but the road is twisty and he knew how easy it’d be to get distracted by her. He can’t remember how long it’d been since he’d been out for a leisurely drive around the peninsula, and since she’s new, they end up stopping at every little village and scenic viewing area they come across. 

 

Normally, this was the type of activity he’d do on Sunday afternoons when his mom would bug him to spend time with her and some family friends. Today, Ben quickly learned that the choice of company can completely change the way he felt about what was essentially the same outing. She gave up so much of herself easily, not afraid to talk about her adoptive parents and of how grateful she is for them but how she still wished they’d pay as much attention to her as they did ten years ago. Everything she told him, he wanted to know. About her varsity letter in volleyball, about her role as Abigail Williams in The Crucible her junior year and her love for American playwright Arthur Miller. A new space had formed inside his head, made just for storing information about her, Rey Jackson - bad at kayaking and parallel parking, self-proclaimed aficionado at Centipede and bumper cars, in love with fluffy dogs and Sour Patch Kids, and someone who believed that you should  _ always  _ get the waffle cone.

 

He found himself opening up, and not just about inconsequential details, like his love for peanut m&ms, Reese’s peanut butter cups, and basically anything involving chocolate, peanuts, and peanut butter. Ben told her about how they don’t understand him at school, this tall guy who they all think should play basketball or baseball and be raring to get the hell outta dodge instead of farm. It bothered him more than he let on, more often than not just letting it wash over him. That wasn’t what he wanted to dwell on, so instead he told her how proud he was, of the centennial farm, of the ribbons and trophies with his name on them that line the walls of his bedroom, all from state fair and 4-H competitions. 

 

All of this was enough to make him think he was starting to get in deep. But then, when he guided her down towards the public beach in Leland and found some clean sand for them to sit on, she asked if it was cool to put on some music, even just on her phone. She thumbed through her phone, smiling at her choice, and setting it down on a rock in front of them. When he recognized the song, Mumford and Sons’ Babel, and saw her singing the lyrics under her breath, he knew he’d already fallen. 

 

It’s fully dark out when they got back to his house, no lights visible inside the house and outside just the dozen or so solar-powered lights that line the sidewalk from the driveway to the front door. 

 

She’s messing with something on her phone when they pulled into the driveway, and instead of waiting, he jumped out and walked to her side, opening the passenger door to the truck. A great idea, he’d thought, until she stood in front of him, unmoving, looking up at him. Waiting. 

 

Even now, he swears he won’t ever forget how thankful he is that she wasn’t afraid to make a move again. 

 

This time, when she kissed him goodnight, it was definitely not a miss. This time, it’s square on his lips with her hand in his hair, it’s her mouth parting his easily and treating him to the taste of her, of berry flavored chapstick and the bottle of red Gatorade they shared on the drive. It’s the content way she hummed when his hand settled on her waist, and how when she finally pulled away it was only from his mouth. She clung to him, breath warming his chest. 

 

It hurt when she finally spoke, giving an excuse that she needed to leave, but then - 

 

“...do you wanna hang out again tomorrow? After you’re done with your work.”

 

If hanging out meant evenings spent exploring beaches, finding every ice cream spot in the county, and having the most engaging girl he’s ever met pressed up against his truck kissing him goodnight? 

 

“Of course.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, hey, look. The rating increased ^^
> 
> A lot bigger of a chapter this time, it sort of got away from me, oops.

Ben fell. Fell for this girl, fast and hard and fully. He’d never expected this to happen, and it’d certainly never felt this way before. The couple of times he’d thought himself in love were nothing like this. He didn’t need all his fingers on one hand to count how many times he’d thought he’d fallen in love, and sad as it may be, that’s even if you count the crush he had on that girl from soccer camp in third grade. 

At school now, all moved in and comfortable, with campus and his class schedule memorized, he should be moving on. He does, for the most part. He gets along with his roommate far better than he’d ever thought possible, found friends in his classes, even found a part-time job at the library. 

But it's the little things that spark memories of her. 

Taking trips to the MSU Dairy Store for ice cream. 

Innocuous questions from new classmates about his home, if he’s got a girlfriend, boyfriend, what he did over the summer. 

_ Traverse City, just north of town.  _

_ No, no girlfriend. No boyfriend either.  _

_ Summer's a big time on a cherry farm, lots of work to do.  _

He goes to a campus drag show with his roommate, his first one ever. He almost has to leave when a brunette with teased up hair and a 60s mod dress named Lana del Slay comes on and sings Summertime Sadness. 

It’s an unseasonably chilly Friday night in early October when he ends up talked into going to a frat party at some place that will inevitably be a trash heap of obnoxious drunks and EDM concealed by a large Tudor house. The  _ party _ isn’t the part that he’s unsure of, it’s the  _ frat _ part. But, Ben finds that he’s completely run out of viable excuses for why he can’t go. 

“Come here, I’ll fix that.” His roommate stops him before they are about to leave, unbuttons a couple buttons on Ben’s flannel, then tucks in just the front of his shirt. Next, he unbuttons his cuffs and expertly rolls them up, carefully, unlike how Ben just scrunches them up and hopes they stay put. “There. Girls like that.”

“They like ...forearms?”

“Uh, yea. Would I trick you?”

It’s been a month and a half and Ben can think of at least four examples, but instead he just says, “Yes.”

“Okay, but this time I’m not.”

He wasn’t. Ben’s forearms get felt up by three drunk girls and one guy within the first half hour, and he’s about ready to make his retreat back to the dorms when he sees Phasma, his classmate from his stats class, across the room, sinking dart after dart into a dartboard. His roommate might think he’s unsociable, but that really isn’t the case - he just isn’t into the constant push to go out and try to hook up with the first person willing. Maybe it’d be different if he hadn’t met Rey, and maybe that  _ will  _ be something that interests him, eventually, when he’s over her. But tonight, he’s relieved that Phasma’s here, so he asks to play whoever wins. Sure, he started off their friendship awkwardly, asking her on the first day of class what the “enby” button on her backpack meant, but she took it in stride and explained. They’re regular lunch buddies at the International Center food court now, along with Doph, another guy from their class, who was losing horribly at darts. 

So, yea. Overall, life on campus isn’t completely horrible. He enjoys it, more than he expected to. But still, sometimes, he gets himself into some Rey-filled situation knowing full well he’ll be a mopey mess when his roommate gets home. 

Like when he sees that the student theater group is doing a production of All My Sons. By itself, the plot and the characters don’t remind him of her, but all he wants to do when he gets back to his dorm is talk to her about it. Arthur Miller is her favorite, she’d have so much to say about it and he wants her insight after the flurry of emotions the play just sent him through. 

Instead, he has to listen to his half-drunk, obviously thoroughly kissed roommate babble on and on about how this guy, the adorable guy he met at 1am in line at Taco Bell, of all fucking places, might be  _ the one _ . 

_ I found my girl stuck on a sand dune. Just as random but at least better scenery than a campus Taco Bell. She was wearing this giant sweatshirt and bright leggings and she made jokes about Dune without even knowing if I was into sci-fi or not. And she was the one, _ he wants to scream,  _ or at least she could’ve been. _ But he’s silent on that, just listens to the increasingly weird story of the guy in Taco Bell in the white MSU basketball t-shirt, and a shared love for diablo taco sauce.

XxXxX

Ben knew that if any of the guys from high school had any clue how happy he was to be in this saccharine sweet relationship where all he and Rey seemed to do is drive around in his pick-up, watch sunsets, eat ice cream, and hold hands, that they’d think he was crazy. He could hear the questions and comments from them in his head,  _ is she prude? saving herself? maybe she’s just not that into your dumb ass. send her my way, you probably wouldn’t even know what to do with her. _

He knew better than to listen to those voices. 

The days blend together when Ben’s busy with work. They get used to texting each other throughout the day, but depending on what he’s working on, it was hard for him to always have his phone. 

A week after she’d surprised him while he’d been fixing the tractor, while deep in thought in the farm stand kitchen, macerating cherries for more pies, Ben thought he heard his name called. A second later, he swore he heard it again, but Tom Petty still sang too loud through Han’s ancient boombox, a gigantic piece of mid 80s electronics, covered in faded stickers for The Grateful Dead and 98.1 The Bear classic rock station. He wiped his hands off on a towel and reached over to turn down the radio volume.

“Ben!” his mom yelled again from the front of the store. “A friend of yours is here.”

“A friend?” he called back, not knowing who could possibly be there, but he set aside what he was working on and walked out towards the store.  _ I don’t have any… Oh, _ he thought once he saw her.  _ That sort of friend. _

With how small the inside of the store was, just the glass display case under the register, some shelves with their stock on it, and a couple sets of tables of chairs, he spotted Rey as soon as he was out the door. 

_ Don’t stare, _ his brain chided as he looked at her. She stood across the room, looking at the bags of cookies on one of the shelves.  _ Seriously, stop. You’re creepy. _

Oh, but it was a chore not to. He was used to seeing her in cut off shorts and t-shirts, and the sundress she wore that day sent him for a loop. It was a golden harvest yellow, with shoulder straps that tied at the top, and a skirt that flared out at mid-thigh. He first thought was how strong her shoulders and arms were, probably from volleyball, and that he was suddenly very interested in the dip of her collarbones and what type of noises she’d make if he kissed her there.

His Mom nudged him with her elbow, just gently, before she went to help another group of customers, but it’s enough to break him out of his one-sided staring contest. 

“Rey?”

Rey turned the rest of the way towards him, and not two seconds later erupted with laughter. He started to ask her what was wrong, but she simply waved a hand at him and held up her index finger to tell him to give her a minute. “Oh my god, Ben,” she managed to say after a few deep breaths. “What on earth have you been doing? Is it snowing already back there?” 

He looked down at the navy blue colored apron hanging over his front, covered in flour. It was on his t-shirt and jeans too, and without looking in a mirror he realized some must also be on his face or in his hair, or both. 

“Baking,” Ben says with a shrug. 

“Baking?” The way she pronounced the word he knew he’d have believed him more easily if he’d said it actually was snowing. 

“Yea.” He gestured at the pies, large and small, in the glass case below. “All these pies don’t bake themselves, ya know.”

Rey walked the last few steps toward the glass case, then leaned down, her elbows on the counter next to the register. “You’ll have to teach me sometime.”

“I’ll take you up on that. In the meantime, what kind should I get?

“What do you like?”

“What do  _ you  _ like?” she parroted back immediately.

_ You, _ he almost blurted out.

“Sour cherry, for sure.”

She said she’ll take that then, a mini one, and he grabbed a warmer one from a cooling rack instead of the display case. As excited as he was to see her, especially have her surprise him like this, there’s half a dozen pies in various states of doneness in the kitchen, so there was no way he could take his break right then and sit with her. He wiped down a table for her, and brought over a fork, napkin, and a glass of iced tea, then told her to yell for him when she finished.

Fifteen minutes later, he heard the ding of the  _ ring for service _ bell from beside the cash register, and he hurried out, finding her waiting at the counter.

“That,” Rey started, looking down at empty foil pan she held, then back up to Ben, “was amazing.” She bounced on her tip toes back and forth a couple times before she surged up to kiss him. It’s quick, something quite chaste and proper since his mother and a bunch of customers are there, but when it came to her lips anywhere on his body, he’d take whatever she wanted to give. “You are definitely teaching me how to make this.” She smiled, and it’s more than enough to make him agree. “I gotta jet. Probably got just enough time to get back to town to pick up my Grandpa.” She pulled her phone out of her bag, checking the time. “You got plans for later?”

“Nope. I am all yours.”  He cringed inwardly at his answer, hoping it wasn’t too cheesy, or fast, or creepy, or --  

“Good, I like the sound of that,” Rey replied, walking backwards towards the door. “Send me a text when you’re done for the day.” She waved at him and his mom as she left.

His Dad walked in then, just in time for lunch, coming in through the back door as Rey exited out the front towards the small parking lot. “What’s that red on your face, kid?”

For a split second, Ben thought he must’ve been blushing, and he was ready to tell his dad some bullshit excuse about it being hot back in the baking room, but when he turned to covertly lick his lips, he tastes sour cherry pie filling.

“You just missed it.” His mom walked up and placed a plate with a slice of strawberry pie in his dad’s hands. “Ben’s little girlfriend was here.”

Ben can’t say anything, he’s too busy grabbing a napkin to wipe his face off with, and reeling from the embarrassment of the phrase  _ Ben’s little girlfriend _ leaving his mom’s mouth. 

_ Makes it sound like I’m five and she’s some kid I chase during recess.  _

“What? Go get her back in here,” Han told him, as if it’s not weird to go run after her car. “I gotta meet the lady who’s finally corrupting my son.”

“Dad,” Ben moaned, the word coming out with two syllables. 

“Kidding, kidding.” Han laughed, grabbing a Coke from the cooler and heading to one of the tables. “It’s just too easy to rile you up. Besides, you can’t go get her, you’ve got work to do. Just bring her around for dinner sometime. I promise your mom and me’ll be nice.”

_ Oh, yea. They’ll be nice and polite, but embarassing as all fucking get out. _

******

It quickly became a new routine. Ben spent his days working around the farm with his dad, helping with baking or the finances with his mom, and whatever other tasks needed to be done. Around four in the afternoon they’d usually call it a day and wash up, and afterwards he would head towards town to Rey’s. 

The summer seemed to stretch out endlessly in front of them, despite the end date that they both knew was approaching sooner than they’d like. Ben kept his mind off it though, as much as he possibly could, and instead tried to think of all the different places and events he could take Rey to. It’s the first time since he was little that he could remember having a summer vacation this fun. 

Okay, well, not everything was the most fun he’d ever had. He’d realized that as he stood in a city parking lot, poking himself with safety pins as he tried to pin a race bib to his gym shorts for the Cherry Fest 5K.

This adventure had been one-hundred percent Rey’s idea - while Ben was pretty strong from working on the farm, cardio was not his forte. He almost said no, that 5Ks and crowds and well, running, weren’t really his thing, but she’d seemed so excited when she saw it on the Cherry Fest flyer. He knew she was going to beat him, once she mentioned her middle school didn’t have volleyball, so she’d been on the cross-country team instead. 

_ Don’t worry about me, _ he’d said to her as they waited in the start line corrals.  _ You run your race and I’ll run mine.  _

He had every intention of doing just that, up until the very second when the starting gun sounded. Rey took off, fast, and while he wasn’t going to be able to keep up with her, all thoughts of going at his own controlled pace and taking it easy flew out the window when he crossed the start line. 

Something switched on inside of him, this intensely competitive side, and he spent the race pushing his legs faster and faster, viewing each person he approached as someone to pass. Ben nearly stumbled as the finally crossed the finish line, all the muscles in his legs aflame as the try to walk normally. A volunteer put a finishers’ medal around his neck and someone else handed him a bottle of water. He chugged over half of it at the same time as he tried to catch his breath, and was doubled over on a patch of grass by the time Rey found him amongst the crowd. She rubbed his back, waiting for him to catch his breath before grabbing his hand and guiding him towards the lot they’d parked in - the plan being to head to his parents, shower and change, and then come back to play carnival games and eat fried food all afternoon.

“Why don't we do something I don't like?” Rey suggested as the drove out of town. 

He glanced over at her for a split second, his nose scrunched up. “I don’t wanna make you do something you don't like.”

“How about…,” she started, then paused, looking out the window as if the bay would give her some inspiration. “I got it! How about we ride the ferris wheel tonight? I’m not afraid, but it’s in no way my favorite.” 

She lied, he found out, by how she clenched his hand in line so hard it reminded of the birth story his dad tells. How she jumped and gasped at the metallic clang when the worker closed the front gate on their car. And, of course, it was the swinging bench and  _ hope you didn’t wear flip-flops _ dangling feet type, not the enclosed birdcage type. When they started moving, he exaggerated a yawn and slid his arm around her. In return, Rey rolled her eyes and laughed before she leaned into his side, seeming to calm down a little. 

“At least the view makes our ride on this death trap worth it,” she remarked as the ride creaked its way upward.

And oh, how it did. Spread out in front of them, past the brights lights of the carnival rides and cars passing by on Grandview, the waning light of sunset lit up the bay. They could see the lights of cabins on the middle arm, dozens of sailboats out for twilight cruises, even the lights on the Bijou’s marquee are more impressive than usual. 

The ride stopped at the top to let more people on, and Rey’s sharp intake of breath told him she was not cool with sitting up there forty feet in the air, rocking back and forth with the momentum from stopping. He reached a hand out, setting it on her leg, rubbing what he hoped were soothing circles on her thigh with his thumb.

Since he’d never had a girlfriend, most wouldn’t have pegged Ben for being a hopeless romantic. 

_ Hopeless, yea. But aren’t most eighteen years olds?  _

He was though, a complete sucker for anything sappy. Wearing out the tape on their old VHS copy of The Princess Bride, daydreaming about holding up boomboxes, love confessions that used words like  _ ardently _ , or that list off all the little things he loved about someone, running through an airport so she wouldn’t leave without knowing how he felt. 

So right now? On a Ferris wheel at sunset with Rey? He was going to enjoy this. 

“Hey.”

“Yea?” Her voice was still a bit clipped and nervous. The ride hadn’t started to move again. 

“You know what I've always wanted to do?”

“I dunno. Never ride a ferris wheel again?”

Ben huffed out a little laugh. “Not exactly. I… here. I’ll just show you.” 

He reached over, cupped her face to turn it towards him, then brought his lips to hers. Ben had wanted this for a while, this fairytale romcom kiss at the top of a Ferris wheel, at sunset, with lights and the sounds of the other games and rides below. What’s even better about it, is that it was Rey here kissing him back. 

Rey, who texted him about her day.

Rey, whose lips tasted like that overpriced frozen lemonade he bought for her earlier.

Rey, who spent fifteen dollars attempting to knock down milk bottles to win a Spongebob plushy. 

Rey, who’d be leaving in a few weeks. 

The ride jolted to life again and Rey pulled away, but he could see the smile on her face, lit up by the multicolored lights around them. She turned to face forward again, shifting to rest her head on his shoulder, and snuggle into his side. 

_ Maybe not so hopeless after all.  _

******

Two months into…  _ shit, what were they doing? Hanging out? _ That seemed to not say enough.  _ Dating? _ He loved the sound of that, but they definitely hadn’t put terms to their relationship, and the only person that referred to Rey as his girlfriend was his mother. 

Anyways. Two months into their summer, Ben realized one evening, while his parents were off on one of their nice nights out - the kind where they went to a restaurant that needed reservations and where his dad put on the suit that mostly just collected dust in the back of the spare bedroom closet - that he and Rey had been on plenty of dates, but never a nice night out.

That had to change. 

After making sure that Rey had packed something dressy for her summer up north, he told her not to worry about the details and started making all the arrangements.

His mom had been pleased to no end when she saw him come down the stairs in that suit. It was the same dark grey suit he wore to senior prom, much newer and better tailored than his dad’s khaki suit. 

In the end, all the hustling was worth it. She looked like a damn dream when he first saw her, walking down the hallway of her grandfather’s house, busy putting in an earring and not even looking at him yet. He took the opportunity to admire her. Her hair was down, with two braids pulled in from the sides, and she wore a sleeveless forest green wrap dress that hit just the knee, with flat strappy gold sandals. 

When she finally looked up, her jaw actually dropped open and,  _ fuck, _ if it doesn’t make some sort of pride swell up inside of him to see her ogle him so brazenly. 

“ _ Ben. _ ”

“Hi.” 

She grabbed her purse off a coat hook as she strode the last few steps towards him. Rey pulled him down, kissing him soundly. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you?” she told him, her voice low so only he could hear. She turned then, and yelled towards the kitchen, “We’re leaving, Grandpa. Probably be late so don’t wait up.”

Ben had managed to finagle reservations at Trattoria Stella, an upscale farm-to-table Italian place, which proved easy once he named dropped the farm while on the phone with the manager. He’d decided before the date started that he wasn’t going to let Rey know any plans ahead of time. They drove down to the bay after dinner, Ben satisfied with the confused look on Rey’s face when he grabbed a huge blanket from the cab of his truck. It didn’t take her long to figure it what he’d planned, not when she saw the Traverse City Film Fest banner, a theatre-sized Back to the Future poster, and the sixty-five foot tall outdoor movie screen. Thankfully, there’s rows of folding chairs in front of the screen to sit on, instead of just a grassy field, but he still pulled two chairs as close together as possible for the two of them. He knew Rey had seen it before, so he spent about half the movie trying to whisper lines in her ear along with the actors, she spent her time shushing and scolding him with a smile that said she was more amused than upset.

Rey hooked her iPhone up to the stereo and blasted Journey on the drive home, her voice off key but so enthusiastic that it made up for it. It's all songs to belt out like you mean it, not try to perfect anyways, and if that was the criteria than she nailed it. He parked on the side of her street, just past the house, and as soon as he put the truck in park and cut the headlights, she’s on him, a hand in his hair and one on his leg, leaning across the armrest and kissing him like her life depended on it. It’s nothing new for them, furiously making out before he dropped her off, not until he felt her hand wander up and palm his already growing erection through his dress pants.

“Rey, your grand—”

She shushed him, pressing a kiss to that spot just below his ear that he loves, her nimble fingers quickly unfastening his belt then working at his button and zipper. “He goes to bed at like nine and takes out his hearing aids, don’t worry.”

_ Oh, god. This is really fucking happening.  _

“Y- you don’t have to,” he stammered. 

“I want to.” 

The first time he felt her hand wrap around him - thin fingers and soft skin and that first tentative stroke - he had to conjure up all manner of gross visions to keep himself from blowing it right then and there. 

It didn’t take long before her strokes grew confident, before his eyes were closed and she’s pulling moans and little sighs from his lips, before he’s only got the wherewithal to mumble out  _ Rey _ and  _ so fucking good _ and  _ please, yes, just like that _ , before…

His eyes flew open the moment he felt her mouth on him, soft and wet and so, so warm. 

_ Holy shit. _

Their eyes met when he looked down, her face lit up by the few lights aglow on the dashboard,  and he swore the way she looked up at him through her eyelashes and attempted to smile with her lips around his cock is the absolute hottest thing he’s ever seen in his life. Raising a hand, he brushed some hair behind her ear, then reached back, rubbing the crown of her head. 

“You look so pretty like that,” he whispered, then stilled, worrying she’d be offended, but she hummed contentedly around him, continuing to work herself lower with each bob of her head. Ben closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the headrest. He wanted to watch her, to memorize this moment, but he also knew that just seeing her like this was enough to push him over the edge. 

Her hand’s on him now too, working the part of his length she’s unable to take, doing this little twist near the base that just,  _ oh shit. _

“R- Rey, babe,” he stuttered out, almost not recognizing his own voice, “Oh, fuck, I’m close, you should —”

She released him from her mouth with wet pop but kept stroking him. “No.” Rey surged up, kissed him quickly, then mumbled against his lips, “It’s alright, you can.” Another quick peck and she’s repositioned herself, her mouth back on him. She worked him with more purpose now, hand and mouth and that tongue that kept swirling around the head of his cock with each stroke and then finally she did  _ something, _ because it’s over. He tensed as his vision blurred and his whole body felt electrified, and then her name was falling from his lips, and his eyes opened again in time to watch her swallow him down. 

Ben had no idea what he’d done to deserve her. 

His hand on her head, he guided her to him, kissing her roughly, tasting himself on her tongue. Part of him thought he was supposed to care about that, but she just gave him a better blowjob than he’d ever been able to imagine, and fuck if he’s not going to kiss her afterwards. 

“Get over here,” he told her, his voice coming out more commanding than he’d expected. One of his hands went to her waist to try to help her over and into the driver's seat, while the other reached down and pulled the lever to slide his seat all the way back so she could straddle him, the last thing he needed was for her to lean directly on the horn. She complied, easily crawling over the armrest and settling backwards to straddle his thighs as best she could. 

He slid his hands up her legs, bunching her skirt upwards as he trailed his fingers up her smooth skin. Ben could feel a shiver run through her under his light touches. 

“I’m already so close, Ben, please just touch me.” He’d never heard her sound so needy before and a little part of him wanted to draw this out even longer, but he wanted to get his hands on her even more. She scooted forwards and up onto her knees, offering herself to him, and he was not going to refuse. He quickly brought a hand to her center, smiling at her sharp gasp when he ran a knuckle over her underwear.

“God, baby, you’re soaked.” 

“I told you,” she replied, her voice whiny. They groaned at the same time as her as he pushed her underwear to the side, sinking a finger easily into her warmth. Rey learned forward, hunching over, her head finding its way onto his shoulder. He’d thought having her suck him off, getting to come in her mouth, seeing how much she enjoyed it… he’d thought  _ that  _ would be his favorite thing in the world from now on… but with her breath hot against his neck, hearing her moans and gasps and knowing  _ he’s _ the cause, the way her walls greedily squeeze his fingers, he realized that maybe he enjoyed this even more. 

He continued to fuck her, adding another finger, figuring out how to curl his them just so to get her to breathe out his name. She moved her face back a bit, sucking a kiss into his neck that has the blood rushing back to his cock all over again. “Close, Ben,” she said, rushing the words out. “Fuck, I need…”

“Shhh,” he shushed her. “I’ve got you.” The position they’re in was odd, but he found her clit with his thumb, rubbing tight circles and its seconds before she clenched tight around his fingers, her whole body going taut like a bowstring, and then collapsing bonelessly, half against him and half against the driver’s side door. Once she seemed to catch her breath, he smoothed her underwear back into place, then held her gaze as he brought his hand up to his mouth, sucking her juices off his fingers. Rey watched, eyes blown out wide, until he was satisfied they were clean. 

“Watching you come was the single hottest thing I’ve ever seen.” He realized he was whispering but didn’t know why, maybe it was the intimacy of what he’s telling her, since there was no one else around to hear. 

She didn’t blush, just busted out an ear to ear grin as she leaned forward, pressed a quick kiss to his lips, and asked, “Why haven't we been doing that for weeks?”

Ben’s face scrunched up. “I didn’t know it was an option!” he almost yelled.

Rey laughed so hard she gave herself hiccups. 


	4. Chapter 4

She left on a Thursday morning. 

 

He drove into town and met her at her Grandpa’s house, then followed behind her Civic, stopping at the McDonalds on the way out of town. They don’t say anything to each other as they wait for their orders, but Ben pulls her against him once they’re back at the cars, and they kiss in the parking lot, one of each of their hands holding onto each other, the other holding paper takeout bags, until a bunch of kids in an old station wagon honk the horn at them and cheer out the car windows.

 

And two days later, he’s helping pack up the bed of the F250 with all his possessions, jammed in plastic tubs. He’d texted back and forth with his roommate for the last few weeks to coordinate who was bringing what, so the items Ben was responsible for - floor rug, coffee maker, microwave - are packed in too. The sky is clear and cloudless as far as he could see, but his parents still insist on covering everything with a giant blue tarp, just in case. 

 

His roommate seems like his polar opposite, this effortlessly cool and charismatic Poe Dameron, a sophomore, who grew up in actual Detroit, not just a suburb. His parents are both professors at the College for Creative Studies, and he’s majoring in Urban Planning. It’s like the housing department thought,  _ gee, you know what’d be funny? Let’s place Mr. Cosmopolitan with the most farm town hick kid we can find.  _

 

But when Poe sets up speakers next to his laptop and turns on Bring Me the Horizon, that’s when Ben begins to learn that maybe he’s got a lot more in common with Poe than he realized. They share similar tastes in music and movies, and Ben teaches Poe all the millions of ways to cook surprisingly decent food in a dorm using only a microwave and coffee pot, and Poe makes sure that Ben looks like he’s from this century when they try to find house parties to crash.

 

There’s moments when Ben’s doing his normal everyday things, riding the bus to his classes on south campus, or grabbing coffee with Poe and his girlfriend Rose and their even newer boyfriend Finn, at Espresso Royale, when he thinks he sees Rey. Sees her crossing Grand River, or sitting on the grass under a tree near Beaumont Tower, or playing ultimate frisbee by the rock. 

 

Poe asks him what’s up one day, why he goes all weird around a very particular type of girl. 

 

“There was a girl,” he says. “Over the summer.” That’s all he really wants to say, but it’s obvious by the unsatisfied look on his face that Poe wants more, expects a real explanation.

 

“Tell me more, tell me more.” 

 

“God, you’re gonna laugh at me.” He pauses to see the look on Poe’s face, but it just tells him to keep talking. “She was perfect, and it was perfect. It seems so silly to be this hung up on her, I mean, we were never even… you know...”

 

“Fucking?” Poe supplies, and then lets out a laugh at the face Ben makes.

 

“No, um,  _ that  _ definitely happened.”  _ He doesn’t need to know it was just once, _ Ben thinks. “We were never even official, is what I was going to say.”

“So what? I don’t get it. If this girl was that amazing, why aren’t you together?” 

 

“She was going to school out of state, so we decided to keep us as one perfect summer memory.” Poe lets out a groan, displeased. “I know! It all sounded very romantic, like star-crossed lovers in a young adult novel at the time. Talking about it out loud now just makes it sound fucking stupid.”

 

“Okay, it  _ is  _ stupid, so why don’t you fix it? You know we have smartphones? Skype?  _ Cars?” _ Poe’s voice is flabbergasted. “This isn’t World War I, Ben. Long distance is easy. Easier, at least.” 

 

Ben shrugs, remembering having said almost the same thing verbatim to Rey. “Not what we decided.” 

 

“Sometimes I have no idea what to do with you,” Poe pauses as he crosses the room past Ben, reaching a hand out to muss up his hair before he takes a seat in front of his desk. “If you love this woman, go get her. What are you waiting for?” He shakes his head and laughs, recognizing the line from Hamilton. Ben never in a million years thought he’d learn so much about theater in the past year, but Poe’s enthusiasm proved contagious and Rey’s love of the American playwrights has rubbed off on him.  _ They’d get along _ , he realizes sadly.

 

His roommate wouldn’t have gotten into this situation in the first place, but Ben knows that if he had, Poe would be making drives down to Virginia almost weekly, every Friday after his morning chem lab let out. He’d be making grand gestures, probably something to do with a billboard or declaring his love for her in a crowded lecture hall, standing atop a stranger’s desk. 

 

He lets himself envision a world where he drives to William & Mary, surprising Rey with a bouquet of sunflowers on opening night of the first student production she directs. That’d be more his style. Not Heath Ledger and a marching band, not belting out Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. 

 

Ben won’t do those things, not only because grand gestures and being the center of attention are not something he does well, but because it’s not what Rey wanted. So instead, he cuts a look that Poe recognizes as the signal to give it a rest for the time being. 

 

“Fine, fine. Will you at least try to enjoy yourself?” Ben just sighs, so Poe tries a different tactic. “Ya know, I bet your girl would be upset if she knew you were up here being all sad emo boy.”

 

“I am not a sad emo boy.”

 

“Hmph. Sounds  _ exactly _ like what a sad emo boy would say.”

 

Poe drops it after that though, and because, actually, he’s a really decent guy, he doesn’t bring it up again for a while. He just keeps inviting Ben out and including him - he paints Ben’s face green and offers him to extra tickets to football games, doesn’t stop him when he gets morning drunk at the DKE frat tailgate before a noon game. 

 

Ben knows that Poe’s right, too. Just like he’d hate it if he somehow found out that Rey wasn’t enjoying her time at William & Mary, she’d feel the same way if she knew he wasn’t trying his best.

XxXxX

 

There was a quicker way to get to the state park, but he took the slightly longer scenic state highway instead. He picked Rey up much earlier than necessary, but he’d had an inkling that they’d be pulling off the highway at all the little scenic viewpoints turn offs, and he was right. 

 

It’s their last weekend together - her parents get home next week and she had to get back downstate to start packing for school - and this camping trip was his idea. A sort of last hurrah, a getaway from her summer getaway. Most surprising to him was that neither of his parents batted an eye when he said that him and Rey were going camping overnight. Maybe it was because he just told them, instead of posing it like a question, like he was asking permission. He’d never said as much to his parents, but his mother had to know how besotted he was with Rey, she was always awfully good at reading him.

 

By this time in the summer, he thought he’d taken her everywhere possible in the tri-county area already, and by some enormous stroke of luck, while browsing the DNR reservations website, he had managed to find an open campsite at Ludington State Park’s Jackpine area, probably because it was a hike-in only campsite during the middle of the week. They didn’t have far to lug in their things from the parking lot, just about one mile. Thankfully, he already had all of the gear they would need for their trip, from numerous multi-day backpacking trips with Uncle Luke up at Pictured Rocks, so between the two of them they only needed to make one trip. 

 

After getting their tent set up, they spent the rest of the afternoon hiking and exploring along the lakefront, and once they got back, Ben got right to work. He fired up the Jetboil, getting enough water going so they could make two cups of instant ramen and a ready-to-eat backpacking pouch of chicken tikka masala they’d picked out together a few days before.

 

“You know what I love about you?” Ben asked. 

 

They’d both been quiet for a while, and he’s not sure why he brought this up now. The question was so close to those three words that seemed to get caught on the tip of his tongue every time he wanted to say them. He knew he felt that way about her, and that it was real, but he still found himself skirting around it  _ just so, _ hopeful that she had him figured out. 

 

What made him bring it up right then though? Maybe he’s thinking of how long they sat on the beach after they finished eating, until after the sun had long set below Lake Michigan and she’d seen her fill. Rey had watched the whole thing, her hand in his, never once pulling out her phone to check apps or take a picture of the pink and purple painted sky. She didn’t turn to kiss him until it was fully below the horizon, and only let go of him once they were back at the campsite because he’d told her there was no way he could start a fire for s’mores with her hand in his. 

 

“Hmm?” She hummed, rotating the stick she’s holding so her marshmallow can get perfectly browned - no half-ass browned marshmallows for her. She’d searched for the most perfect marshmallow stick during their hike, throwing a dozen or so not-good-enough sticks back into the forest as they went. 

 

“You’re present.”

 

In the light of the fire, he saw her brow crease. “I’m a  _ present?” _

 

“No, I mean—”

 

“Oh, so it’s not a gift, having me in your life?”

 

“Oh my god, Rey.” He moved over and sat next to her on the picnic table bench that they’d dragged over earlier. Her marshmallow was finished, perfectly browned, and he took the stick from her, preparing a s’more as he continued. “You’re present, no matter where you are. You live so fully in every moment you’re given.”  

 

He offered the s’more out to her for a bite, and she leaned forward, biting down and holding a hand below her mouth for the inevitable crumbs. Her eyes rolled back and she moaned appreciatively. 

 

“See?” Ben said, still holding out the second bite for when she’s ready. “That’s what I mean. It’s just a s’more. We’ve been eating them since before we can remember, but you still let yourself squeeze every bit of enjoyment out of it. You savor every moment of life.” 

 

“These moments are sometimes all we get, Ben.”

 

That right there. It sort of sealed things. It’d been a running topic of conversation for the last week or so - how he’s going to Michigan State in the fall and she’ll be all way out at William & Mary - and what they wanted to do, or not do, about that roadblock. Her school was five states away, if you counted DC, and close to 14 hours in the car, if you counted stops for gas, food, and the inevitable traffic in the capital. 

 

It was a conversation they’d had over and over, and it always went just about the same way. Ben wanted to try the long distance thing. Eighteen years and he’d never felt this way about someone until now, it felt like not trying was just a waste. Giving up. But Rey felt differently. Not in her feelings for him, he was sure of that, but somehow she was convinced that trying to make things work long distance was only going to lead to heartbreak for both of them.

 

_ It’d be too difficult. _

 

_ We can make things work. _

 

_ Ben… it’s just too soon. What we have here is so perfect, I don’t want to ruin it. _

 

_ We should try because it’s perfect. _

 

_ We’ve spent the whole summer together, but it’s only been a few weeks. This right here is perfect, but when we’re apart, who knows? I want this memory of us, like this, always.  _

 

_ But there’s always talking on the phone, and texting, and Skype. You talk like it’s a hundred years ago and I’m going off to war. Lots of people do long distance. We could make this work.  _

 

_ At what cost? I don’t… I don’t want to spend all my time missing you, or worrying about every girl that — _

 

_ There’s no other girls, Rey. It’s you. Just you.  _

 

_ You say that now, and I believe you but we’d just be setting ourselves up for disaster. Jealousy, resentment, the whole deal. Can we just… I don’t wanna get into a fight.  _

 

He stopped thinking about it. Not right now, he wasn’t going to let that inner monologue ruin what might be the last time they get to spend together. 

 

So, he found the only surefire way he could think of to stop that train of thought. He leaned towards her, cupped her face in both his hands and kissed her, trying to put everything he wouldn’t voice into it.  _ I love you, _ and  _ I’m yours, I’m yours, I’m yours. _ Rey returned his kiss with equal fervor, hands everywhere, trying to pull him impossibly closer. When he finally moved from her lips to the smooth skin of her neck, teeth nipping and mouth sucking wet hot blooms below her ear, her breath shuddered out so raggedly that he beamed with some sort of powerful pride in himself.

 

“Ben?”

 

“Hmm?” She shivered as he hummed his reply against her skin. 

 

“I think I’m ready,” she breathed out, voice warm against his ear.

 

His body seemed to process her words before his brain caught up, because he’s half hard already and the track pants he’d changed into hid nothing.  _ Oh, fuck. _

 

“Are you sure?” He’d had many versions of the talk from his mom, dad, and uncle, and all involved variations on making absolutely certain they were ready, so he had to ask, but, dear sweet Christ, did he hope she meant it. 

 

“Ben Solo, I told you that I’m ready.” She pushed back from him and grabbed both his shoulders. “Now if you don’t drag me back to that tent and ravage me —”

 

“I think you mean ravish, babe.”

 

“... so help me god I will —”

 

He cut her off again, but this time it was when he scooped her up and over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Rey made a surprised squeal and kicked her legs a bit, just for show. He had to set her down at the tent, and they both eagerly reached to pull open the zipper door flap at the same time. 

 

And yea, it’s both of their first times, so it's awkward, fumbling, and messier than he’d expected - he’s going to have to get both these sleeping bags in the wash before his parents see them. The ground was bumpy and they managed to find all the stray sticks and rocks they missed when they cleaned up the ground for the tent. Rey let out a hiss, scooting them over at one point. 

 

“I'd never thought I wanted my first time to be in a car, but the cab of the truck would probably be more comfy for you.” Ben said, trying to move whatever it was that poked Rey further away.

 

“I want memorable, Ben, not perfect. And I want you now, I'm not walking a mile back to the truck.” She stopped him, reaching up as much as she could to kiss him again, to reassure him, and it worked. 

 

He’s learned her body as best he could in the past two weeks, ever since that first time in his truck, and he made sure she enjoyed this and was ready, working with hands, and mouth, and tongue until she’s writhing underneath him and begging for release. Which he granted, readily, it’s one of his new favorite things, watching her. 

 

She whispered words of encouragement when he entered her, growing dirtier as he grew closer to finishing. Which, well, didn’t take that long, not with her words and her hot breath against his ear, or her beneath him, or how incredibly wet and hot and tight she is. 

 

He left the tent sometime afterwards, going into the cool air to tent to toss the condom in their trash ziploc, that whole  _ pack it out _ mentality engrained in him. When he returned, Rey had the sleeping bags laid out like a bed, situated so no one’s laying in the wet spot. He laid back and she curled into his side, pulling the top sleeping bag over them both, her hand settling on her chest. The same sticks and pebbles were still there, poking into him, but he’s got Rey snuggled into his side, for the first time for an entire night’s sleep, and some stupid sticks were not going to ruin it. 

 

XxXxX

 

January 4

 

When his parents drop him off for the start of second semester, it’s leisurely. Not at all like it was at the beginning of his first semester - which seemed to be quite the opposite for all the rest of the students. Freshman move-in day in his dorm was marked with parents everywhere, fussing about and trying to help their children unpack. Instead, he’d grabbed a push cart at the curb, helped his mom unload the totes and other room items onto it, then pushed it into Gilchrist Hall as she drove away. He understood - move-in also coincided with some prime work time on the farm and he knew that both his parents couldn’t get away, and that his mom was just a shuttle service since freshman weren’t allowed cars on campus. Eighteen years of busy summers and he knew better.  

 

Not this semester. This semester, they both help him carry up his things, even though it’s mostly clean laundry and a couple Meijers grocery bags of food and snacks. By the time he’s settled, and his mother has scanned every single photograph he’s got sticky-tacked up on the wall under his loft to see if there’s any cute girls, it’s almost lunch time. Instead of driving, since the truck can be a bit large, they lace up their snow boots and walk the couple of blocks for Mexican at El Azteco, stopping at the Union on the way back so both his parents can grab coffees for the road. His dad slips him a twenty and his mom reminds him to call his Grandma Padme on her birthday in a week, and then they head back home. 

 

Ben turns on some music for background noise and starts getting his room organized again. It’s nice, just going through the motions of putting clothes away, a bit of peace and quiet since, though there’s a few people on his floor that also arrived today, the majority will be getting in tomorrow, Poe included. It’s been three weeks since the end of the first semester, but he actually just saw Poe less than a week ago - Poe, along with Finn and Rose, had carpooled up to Ben’s house and stayed there, the four of them skiing at Crystal Mountain for two days. Ben was so grateful to have fallen into their little group so well, and surprisingly enough, the three of them manage to not make him feel like he’s tagging along on their relationship. Despite that, there are times he thinks it’s particularly unfair that Poe can have both a boyfriend  _ and _ a girlfriend and he’s still mourning his relationship with Rey, but he also knows that’s on him.  _ Maybe this semester I’ll download Tinder or something. Get out there. Ask out that girl who said she’s taking the same math this spring.  _

 

He’s completely in his head, thinking about the semester, making to-do list after to-do list, until he hears a knock at his door.

 

“Poe?” Ben calls, not bothering to look up from his dresser. The door’s open anyways, he could just come in. It’s actually quite unlike Poe to knock and not just barge on in, it’s half his room after all. “I thought you weren’t going to be here until tomorrow.”

 

A beat passes before there’s an answer.

 

“You thought I wasn’t gonna be here at all.”

 

That voice makes his head snap up, and the image in front of him, though one he’s imagined a million ways to Sunday, is not anything he ever thought would occur. 

 

_ Rey. _

 

She’s here. In his dorm. Okay, almost in his dorm room, but most definitely  _ not  _ in Virginia.

 

Rey’s standing there, leaning against the door frame. She’s got on an oversized MSU sweatshirt, black leggings, and fuzzy Sorel snow boots. Her hair, pulled up in the messiest bun he’s ever seen, is a little wet from the snow and she’s holding a haphazardly folded campus map, like the kind they give out at new student orientation. Her left hand hangs on to the strap of her backpack and she pulls her lower lip between her teeth. “Surprise,” she says softly.

 

He rushes at her, and she stumbles backwards into the hallway, her backpack falling to the ground as he hugs her to him. Rey clings to him fiercely, arms thrown around his neck. Despite that its 2019 and they’re surrounded by the internet and social media and never quite being disconnected, with how they’d ended things last summer, so perfectly, Ben had not expected to ever see her again. 

 

Rey’s laugh echoes through the empty hallway when he lifts her up and spins, her legs settling around his waist. 

 

A couple of people poke their heads out of their doors to see what all the fuss is about, and he hears someone down the hall whooping loudly for him. 

 

_ You’re goddamn right, _ he thinks. 

 

“Ya gonna kiss her already, Solo?” Someone yells from a few doors down.

 

She giggles again when he shifts her weight a bit so he can remove one hand to give the finger to whoever that was down the hallway. His gaze doesn’t leave hers, just holds on to her eyes and  _ looks, _ taking in all the little parts of her face that he missed. How her skin still seems tan even though its the dead of winter, the freckles across the bridge of her nose, the wisps of hair that escape her hair tie. The way she pulls her bottom lip into her mouth before she speaks.

 

“You gonna kiss me already, Solo?” Her voice is low, so whatever interlopers are watching from down the hallway can’t hear. 

 

Ben has so many questions right now for her that he needs answers to - is she going to school here? Campus has like fifteen dorms, how the hell did she find his room? But, since part of him still can’t believe she’s really here, those will all have to wait. He leans in and she closes the gap, meeting him halfway. Her lips are chapped from the wind and her fingertips feel cold against his face, but she’s real, and she’s here. And so he kisses her, and he kisses her, and he kisses her, until a throat clears behind him and the resident mentor’s voice tells him to take their little love fest out of the hallway. 

 

_ Gladly.  _

 

**Epilogue, June 2019**

 

He hears the distinct knock on the front door as he’s in the mudroom, using that pink brush they keep on a hook above the utility sink, the one with the stiff bristles, to clean dirt out from underneath his fingernails. “Mom, can you --”

 

“I got it,” his mom hollers from the kitchen. “You just keep getting cleaned up. You’re not sitting down like a mess at my dinner table.”

 

Ben can hear his mom’s footsteps on the creaky hardwood flooring as she makes her way from the kitchen to the front door, and then the murmur of excited female voices.

 

XxXxX

 

As Ben imagined, extra long twin beds were not optimal for certain activities, but they’d made it work. Compared to their last time, just being in a real bed and not on a poorly inflated sleeping pad with rocks under it made this experience a hundred times better. He’s on his back, looking up at the beige ceiling and trying not to think of all the people that’d had sex on this same mattress before them, when he heard his door open and shut, and then Rey popped her head up over the loft. 

 

“Miss me?” she joked, a smile on her face and her bun lop-sided, now even messier than before. 

 

“Terribly. I thought you'd never get back.” He’s joking, but also, he wasn’t. She was just in the bathroom, he knew she’d be back from there, and the way her head falls to the side and she looks at him softly tells him she knows what he’s thinking. She finished the climb up the last few rungs of the ladder and laid down on the bed, facing him on her side with her head propped up. 

 

“I suppose that I have some explaining to do.”

 

“Not that I’m not over the moon to see you here, but, yea. You definitely have some explaining to do.”

 

XxXxX

 

When he feels like his fingernails are finally clean enough to meet Leia Organa standards, he makes his way through the mudroom and down the hallway to the kitchen. His mom is finishing up dinner, fussing with something, and Rey’s right there too. Just natural, like she belongs there. She’s on the other side of the counter leaning on her elbows, and she looks up when she sees Ben enter, her face lighting up. 

 

It’s a still a trip when he thinks back on her explanation. How she’d felt the same, wandering around the William & Mary campus, seeing Ben Solo in every tall, dark-haired boy. How halfway through the semester she’d decided it wasn’t worth it, and applied to transfer to Michigan State -  _ they’ve got a good drama program and a good teaching one too, Ben, _ she’d told him. How she’d stalked him on social media, saw him tagged with Poe, Rose, and Finn on Instagram, and contacted Poe to set up surprising him. Ben’s not sure if he’s more amazed by her legwork or that Poe managed to keep that juicy of a secret for two months. 

 

He walks over to her, giving her a quick kiss before he stands back and takes her in. Even if he lives to be a hundred years old, he knows he’ll never grow tired of looking at her. 

 

“Yes, Ben, I’m aware that this outfit is horrible.” 

 

It is. He can’t deny it. She’s wearing a light blue short sleeve button down shirt, tucked into navy blue shorts that hit at a rather unflattering level just above her knees, and navy blue socks.

 

“If you’re gonna wear a uniform, could it at least be more Britney Spears school girl and less…” He waves a hand at her outfit, at a loss for words. 

 

“Less drama instructor at a prestigious summer arts camp?”

 

“Exactly.” 

 

She scoffs at him, mock offended, and makes to swat at his arm. He’s quicker though, catching her arm to pull her against him. 

 

“That’s enough, love birds,” his dad interrupts. “Dinner’s ready.”

 

Rey takes her normal spot next to Ben at the table and starts to serve herself from the closest bowl, sautéed zucchini and summer squash that Uncle Luke dropped off that morning, before passing it along. It is true, he does hate the way she looks in that uniform, like an unstylish preppy mom circa 1988, but he’s so thankful she gets to wear it - it’s what’s keeping her close to him all summer. As a junior theatre instructor at Interlochen Arts Camp’s summer program, she has room and board on campus, has roughly the same work schedule as him, and is only thirty minutes away. The experience in teaching she’s getting is amazing and is going to look awesome on her resume. So, yea, the pros definitely outweigh the cons, when the only con is that uniform.

 

“Now, you two, tell us again about this house you found for the fall?”

 

“Oh, Leia, it’s amazing. You’d adore it. Needs a little work —”

 

Ben clears his throat. “A lot of work.”

 

“A lot of work,” Rey admits, “But it’s close to campus and it’s gonna work really well for all of us.”

 

All of them. They’d found a 3 bedroom student rental house for the both of them, along with Finn, Rose, and Poe. Ben’s quiet, listening to Rey extol the house’s virtues, but he smiles. 

 

Because he has her back. Because she’s there for the summer, only a half hour away. Because come the end of August, they'll be at the same school again, the same house, the same bedroom. And because maybe, just maybe, they’ll be in the same place together long after that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Done! Wanted to get this uploaded a few days ago, but with a busy work week and my last big trail race of the year this weekend, it was not to be. 
> 
> Ben lives in the same dorm at MSU that I did, and it was a ton of fun revisiting campus in the story.


End file.
